Tea at Heaven Farm and Dolly's Tea

1840

The year of the first afternoon tea, when Anna,

the 7th Duchess of Bedford,

ordered a small meal of buttered bread, cakes and tarts

in between lunch and supper

Driving down a Sussex lane on our way home from a day out in November we stopped here for afternoon tea

It looked a litle different and the name of the farm caught my eye

The circular building is a traditional Oust House

where the Hops were dried

Afterwards we visited a lovely gourmet food shop and

craft shop situated on the farm and made a few purchases

Heaven for Grandma on Christmas day was seeing 20 month old Rebekah so enjoying her first doll that I bought her

Happy New Year to all

Christmas is Coming!

The cards are made

The tree is up

and the presents are wrapped

and keeping to the simplicity of some lights and baubles only

in the sitting room

It's time for carol singing in the street

The food hampers that we do in housechurch for needy people

all distributed

The carol singing in the local hospital behind us

along with our housechurch Christmas buffet and secret santa

I am looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow

before travelling to our daughter Jane's home for Christmas Day

Boxing Day we will be back home enjoying the day with

our son Peter

so

 wishing everyone who visits here

A very Happy Christmas

Winter Wonderland vs. Chaos on our 51st Anniversary

I had planned to do a post on afternoon tea but the snow bug caught up with me!

Before getting into the chaotic winter wonderland I would like to wish my dear husband a Happy 51st Wedding Anniversary today.

Cannot believe that a year has gone by since our Golden Wedding celebrations. With so

much going on I confess I made him quite a simple card and entitled it 'two hearts joined as one' 

We had our house church Christmas buffet and secret santa today and forgot to mention it to anyone

The snow you will see in the following pictures came down in the space of an hour yesterday. It caused so much disruption with travel chaos with many of the major airports closed including Gatwick and Heathrow and making the roads impassable for people stranded at airports to return home

I was watching it come down so fast as I began to decorate my Christmas tree

So.......Why HAVE we suddenly been plunged into a deep freeze?

The cold winter is being caused by a flow of freezing air from the Canadian Arctic. Normally at this time of year the UK enjoys the benefits of a jet stream from the Atlantic, which brings milder weather than being currently endured.
But a large dense block of cold air is sitting over Greenland and Iceland, blocking the stream's progress over the British Isles and diverting it south over continental Europe.
Meanwhile winds from the Arctic and Siberia, via Scandinavia, are blowing from the north, putting the country into a deep freeze.
The phenomenon is called an Arctic Oscillation and the bad news is that it generally brings long spells of cold.
Tim Thorne from the Met Office, said the big freeze is expected to last past Christmas and perhaps into the New Year. He said: 'The problem is that the jet stream from the Atlantic has been forced south and when this happens it is very difficult for it to correct itself and flow up north again. The cold weather is entrenched over the British Isles I am afraid'
Taken from The Mail on Sunday

The steps down into next door's garden

(we are on a hill)

Cars stuck in the snow outside my house

and that's a car in the foreground almost invisible

The snow has stopped  for now so it's off for a walk in the park

We are so blessed to have this park at the top of our road

My footprint

Alan seems alone

London on the horizon 15 miles away

Someone left behind a snowball

But the outdoor gym is deserted

And the children's playing areas

Fudge and Tea in - Cambridge Pt.6

Let's forget the frost, ice and snow for a moment and revisit Cambridge.

Here we are, passing the fudge makers! Do we go in? Well, yes we do and that is not all

After watching the fudge being made

and sampling a taster

I could not resist the counter

and what did I buy?

4 slices, each slice being large enough to cut into about 12 portions

Lemon Meringue, Rum & Raisin, Toffee and Vanilla

On arrival home I realised that as it was made with fresh cream it did not last long

I can't eat all this in 10 days

Fortunately when I telephoned the shop I was assured that it could be frozen - phew!!

Next stop is tea before heading for the car

Here we have a combination of Chapel and Tea room

in the hall belonging to one of the churches

Now I will return to the snow and ice briefly to show you the icicles hanging from my roof

I made the mistake of opening the window

which sent icicles hurtling to the ground narrowly missing the car

parked below. Oops!

Snow Has Fallen Snow on Snow

A way for house church to share the Love of God in the community as well as shopping for, and checking on the elderly.

This was some of our house church caring for us as we then went on to care for elderly neighbours not thinking of ourselves in this category!

And then the next day it was all back again

This has been the difficulty in this current cold snap

After the snow lots of ice forming and then snow on top has made for hazardous conditions

It is now Friday and we have not been able to get the car out since last Monday. Living on  a hill does not help, especially when it is used for sledging

We are having a high of 28f today with 25f forecast for the weekend.

So unfortunately we were not able to travel to see Janie and dear little Oliver and Rebekah after all. 

At least we can enjoy the garden without going out into it, except of course to feed the birds

I Am Not Ashamed

Today in the UK (1st December) begins a nationwide campaign where thousands of Christians will be wearing this badge, and for some they will be wearing teashirts bearing the logo and more.

This links in with a world wide initiative for Christians

to stand up and be counted and proclaim

I am Not Ashamed  to wear this cross.

You will see more from the link if you have not heard about it.

Photo taken when I woke yesterday morning

It then snowed on and off all day and is a lot deeper now

but nothing like the 12 inches or more that has fallen in the

North East

With so much ice and arctic temperatures roads have been gridlocked and many lorry drivers were stranded overnight on the London orbital M25

Our dinner guests last night had to cancel

leaving us to enjoy the food ourselves over 2 nights

This does not bode well for our planned trip to spend the day with Jane and grandchildren when she returns from

New York on Friday

For now, we are going to brave the weather and walk to our local shops to get some milk for housechurch here tonight (everyone lives within walking distance), unable to get our car out onto our icy hill at the moment